New Year, new start: Dukan Diet - have you been successful? Easy? Comments?

2013 is soon going to ring in, and yes, for me that means getting back on plan. I've really lost my way; gained a ton of weight back and am feeling overwhelmed and out of control. I just heard of the Dukan diet when Sergeant mentioned it in her post - who out there has/is following it? Easier than Atkins? I really want to go high protein/low carb like Dukan seems to be, but I also need something that will 1) have me lose a chunk of weight quickly to start out and motivate me, 2) keep me going long term. This life of yo-yo dieting has to stop, but I also need to lose some weight quickly to keep going.Comments? Happy New Year!

I don't have experience with the Dukan diet, though I did look it up. It is one of those sites where, when you pay to belong, you get services from their team to manage your diet and keep you on the program.

I don't know if you are planning on subscribing to their program or just following the basics of the diet. One thing these pay sites have in common with in-person programs and diet doctors you visit is that both the money you pay and the live support they give you mean more people will stay with the program and succeed while taking part. If you are just following the principles of their plan, and you are motivated to stay with it, you can lose the weight. The question is, how do you keep it off without their managed maintenance transition?

None of these sites can give you information about how many people stay with the program and permanently keep the weight off. That is really outside of something they can do with their budget and framework. Only Atkins has been so popular that it has been studied independently. It's also true that because Atkins has been studied, the program has been able to change to respond to information that was revealed in long-term research.

My other concern is what you said about wanting to start your diet with a big chunk of weight loss to motivate you. I understand the sentiment, because I've said it to myself before. "If only I lose this weight ASAP it will make it so much easier to keep losing weight/keep it off." But the truth is that after uncontrolled eating or even a feeding frenzy (like the holidays we are coming off), the pounds do drop off almost magically the first week no matter what strict diet you are following. Most of it is water weight. The second week weight loss will slow down,and by the end of the second week your water weight will have stabilized and losses will be fat.

The fat will come off more slowly, which will be discouraging after fast losses at the beginning. It can be discouraging to lose only a pound or less a week, even though doing so consistently does indeed bring you closer to your goal.

But it's also true that the stricter the diet you follow, the harder it is to stay on it. Starting a diet with a 3 day fast might show a big drop on the scale, but day 4 would probably be spent binging and hating yourself for not having self-control, when in fact the body is responding normally to what it sees as a famine situation, and the real diet would never start.

I encourage you to look for a "diet" that has a maintenance plan that looks like something you will enjoy staying with forever, one that encourages you to continue to practice things like portion control, and teaches you strategies for dealing with situations that trigger you to eat. It is harder to keep the weight off than lose it. Try out the maintenance plan for a week or two to see how it feels to you while you begin logging everything you eat to see how your calories compare to your RDI. Then make the decision whether it is right for you or you need to keep looking.

I have been following Dukan since July. I have just entered the last phase of the plan as of yesterday. I encourage you to read the book from beginning to end before deciding if this works for you. You have to know it is something you can stick with. The first two phases are very strict but if you follow the plan exactly you will stay motivated as the scale continues to move down....it is super easy to follow and I felt like I was eating ALL THE TIME. I did P90X during the first two phases as well so I had lots of energy to do that even though his recommendation is only 30-40 minutes of walking. to this day I still exercise 6-7 days/week. It takes planning on your part to rid the house of anything not Dukan friendly and have enough of the Dukan friendly foods available. The third phase is where you really need to follow it properly because as eKatherine said...you could have a binge and ruin all your hard work. I had tried Atkins but never really found as much success because I'd stall and start gaining...for me I think it had to do with the fat. My doctor recommended I read Dukan and I knew after finishing to book that it was for me. I did NOT pay for the coaching....I had enough motivation myself to stick with it. Knowing that I wasn't going to eat like the first two phases forever kept me motivated enough to wait until consolidation phase. Consolidation had its ups and downs but mostly downs. I feel great...I eat everything I want and portion control just kind of happened. I now don't feel like I am on a diet but rather a way of life that works well for me. Ironically it seems that the way of eating (higher protein lower fat) is how my husband always eats (no sweet tooth for him) and he has never had a weight issue. He laughed when I described the plan and said I should have just followed along with him the whole time.

My doctor suspected I had some hormone issues and it was determined through testing that I produce too much insulin. That's why this plan works well for me. Daily my protein is roughly 40% of my intake.

I have been following Dukan since July. I have just entered the last phase of the plan as of yesterday. I encourage you to read the book from beginning to end before deciding if this works for you. You have to know it is something you can stick with. The first two phases are very strict but if you follow the plan exactly you will stay motivated as the scale continues to move down....it is super easy to follow and I felt like I was eating ALL THE TIME. I did P90X during the first two phases as well so I had lots of energy to do that even though his recommendation is only 30-40 minutes of walking. to this day I still exercise 6-7 days/week. It takes planning on your part to rid the house of anything not Dukan friendly and have enough of the Dukan friendly foods available. The third phase is where you really need to follow it properly because as eKatherine said...you could have a binge and ruin all your hard work. I had tried Atkins but never really found as much success because I'd stall and start gaining...for me I think it had to do with the fat. My doctor recommended I read Dukan and I knew after finishing to book that it was for me. I did NOT pay for the coaching....I had enough motivation myself to stick with it. Knowing that I wasn't going to eat like the first two phases forever kept me motivated enough to wait until consolidation phase. Consolidation had its ups and downs but mostly downs. I feel great...I eat everything I want and portion control just kind of happened. I now don't feel like I am on a diet but rather a way of life that works well for me. Ironically it seems that the way of eating (higher protein lower fat) is how my husband always eats (no sweet tooth for him) and he has never had a weight issue. He laughed when I described the plan and said I should have just followed along with him the whole time.

My doctor suspected I had some hormone issues and it was determined through testing that I produce too much insulin. That's why this plan works well for me. Daily my protein is roughly 40% of my intake.

I'm starting tomorrow. I've read the book...this is for me and like Preggo my husband never had a weight problem and loosely seems to be following this way of eating. I just hope i can have the kind of success you've had.

Any more updates from the dukan diet corner? I'm thinking of starting it soon and doing my research. It seems to be a great way to live life longer. I've never been good at sticking to diets that are more than a week long but hopefully with the coaching and initial weight loss, motivation will come. The hardest times are when you're having people over or at a party. Diets and socializing are always at war.

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